August 2013

With a new Superman in now in theaters every now and then I’ll continue to take a look back at the hero’s more memorable moments on both the big and small screen. Superman: The Animated Series put their own spin on several new and classic comic book villains but of all the baddies made specifically for the show Livewire (Lori Petty) stands out above the rest. Although her introductory episode may not be one of the show’s best, Livewire turned out to be another fun character to add the animated rogues gallery of our hero.

In a futuristic western adventure set during what appears to be the 22nd Century Civil War based on the struggle for limited natural resources, Six Gun Gorilla #1 isn’t quite what I expected (especially from a comic with a gun-totting Gorilla on the cover from Boom Studios).

Although our cryptic title character is teased throughout the first issue in the distance, we only get our first good look at him in the comic’s final pages to save the life of a soldier known as Blue-3425. This means the story we’re given focuses on a bizarre group of kamikaze soldiers known as “Blues” whose dual purpose is to be cannon fodder for the real soldiers and record and transmit the images of the battle for those watching back home.

The comic is more dystopian and less whimsical than I expected from the title. The world writer Simon Spurrier and artist Jeff Stokely throw is into takes awhile to get used to (and I could have done without the number of oddball sci-fi terms thrown in). I’m not sure it’s a comic that I’ll stick with it, but it’s certainly worth a look.

Without giving too much away, despite Kaine’s untrustworthy perception the clues to the identity of the other Scarlet Spider not being Ben Reilly are impossible to ignore well-before the character is unmasked. I’d have certainly preferred the return of Reilly in some form of another to the switch we get here, but the joy of getting two Scarlet Spiders in one issue helps mollify that disappointment (and the return of the Jackal’s clones certainly doesn’t rule out Reilly’s return sometime in the future).

Most of the comic centers around the fight between the two heroes one clad in black and red and the other in crimson and his trademark blue hoodie, but we also see several of Kaine’s friends being attacked as well as if someone is systematically hunting the former assassin and all who he loves down.